Memory's Abyss

Chapter 8

After the talent threshold test, Ming Guang and Zhou Xiangzhe are taking Shen Wang back.

On the way, Ming Guang introduces himself. It's the first time Shen Wang learns that he's actually the vice-captain of Polaris, a Grade B mutant with the talent Forbid Passage.

'Polaris is on break right now. I'll introduce you to the rest of the team next time we head out of the city,' Ming Guang says as he drives.

'They're all good people. Easy to get along with.'

Shen Wang felt nothing about meeting his teammates. Honestly, he'd never had friends growing up. The only one who even sort of counted was The Child from the orphanage. Back then they didn't have names; they were all called by numbers. He was Little Fifteen, and The Child, a year older, was Little Seven.

After the orphanage was gone, he lived in the hospital long-term. The explosive temper that came with his episodes was more than enough to scare off any kid who thought he looked pretty and wanted to be his friend.

So he gave up on the whole making-friends thing. He was perfectly happy just playing by himself every day.

'Captain Zhou doesn't really have friends. Everyone on the team is scared of him, can't even talk to him,' Ming Guang says with a laugh. 'In the end, Central City's most popular Grade S mutant has only me as a friend.'

'You don't need many friends,' Zhou Xiangzhe replies, unusually calm. 'And you're not my only one. I've gotten gifts from a friend before.'

'That umbrella?' Ming Guang sighs. 'Look at you. One umbrella, and you've held onto it this long.'

At that, Ming Guang asks Shen Wang, 'Would you ever give someone an umbrella as a gift?'

'What a coincidence.' A rare trace of nostalgia surfaces in Shen Wang. 'I have.'

Little Seven never managed to get an umbrella. The orphanage only had two umbrellas but dozens of kids. He never fought for anything, never grabbed — his nature was too good, always willing to give things up for others. So he always lost out. All the good things passed him by, even just a beat-up little umbrella.

But Little Seven always waited for him outside, making sure that the moment Little Fifteen came back, he'd be the first thing he saw. So every time Shen Wang returned from the hospital, he'd find him crouched at the orphanage entrance, and on rainy days, soaked to the bone.

Even when he was freezing and sneezing, he'd still smile at Shen Wang, eyes bright, reaching out for his hand.

So he asked a nurse for a disposable umbrella — didn't cost a thing. Shen Wang was cute as snow, and all it took was a bit of coaxing for the nurse to give him one.

When he went back, Shen Wang gave the umbrella to Little Seven. That way, when he waited for him, he wouldn't get rained on anymore.

Little Seven told Shen Wang that was the happiest day of his life.

'Captain Zhou, we really are fated, huh.'

Shen Wang says it half-jokingly. 'I sang for a friend, your friend sang for you. I gave a friend an umbrella, your friend gave you one.'

'If you didn't look nothing like him, I'd almost think you were that friend of mine.'

The car falls silent for a few seconds.

Finally, Zhou Xiangzhe answers, 'Yeah. What a coincidence.'

His tone doesn't change, like the exchange didn't affect him at all. But Ming Guang already regrets bringing the topic up.

Zhou Xiangzhe doesn't look like this originally — no long silver hair, no golden eyes. It's the price he paid for killing a Grade S contaminant, a price that cost him so, so much, including his original appearance. No one could possibly link the him of now with the him of three years ago.

That's why Shen Wang doesn't recognize him, doesn't know he's Little Seven from Galaxy Orphanage.

Ming Guang sighs inwardly. He'd love to just lay it out, but Zhou Xiangzhe clearly isn't willing. He's still worried that Shen Wang changed his identity because he didn't like his own past.

The orphanage is Zhou Xiangzhe's nightmare. He doesn't want that past to become Shen Wang's nightmare too.

He keeps driving, and to ease the atmosphere in the car, Ming Guang reaches over and turns on the radio.

But whether it's a signal issue or something else, what blares out when the radio comes on is a burst of static.

'…listen…patrol…Qianzhen Residential…lost…'

'What's with this sound quality?' Ming Guang frowns and fiddles with the channel, trying to make the voice clearer.

Shen Wang looks over, curious about the car radio. 'Is there a music channel? Can you request songs?'

'How would there be anything like that!'

Most of the old era's music has been lost. After the apocalypse, with the massive population decline, song and dance entertainment nearly collapsed. Now car radios are mostly used as a broadcast platform for alerts.

Zhou Xiangzhe reaches out and pulls Shen Wang back. 'Don't just stand up suddenly. It's dangerous.'

'I have music tapes at home. Sit down properly, and I'll give them to you when we get back.'

'Really?'

'It's true.' Ming Guang answers for Zhou Xiangzhe while still adjusting the radio. 'Besides wiping out contaminants, Polaris also clears new zones. Every time we reach a new place, he collects music stuff — instruments, discs, you name it. Everyone on the team knows it.'

Then Ming Guang mutters under his breath, 'I used to wonder why he collected all that stuff if he never even listened to music. Now I know.'

The guy was collecting it for someone else!

While grumbling inwardly, Ming Guang keeps turning the dial. Soon, the sound is much clearer than before.

'Anyone…hear?…Qianzhen…help!'

Ming Guang slams on the brakes. Zhou Xiangzhe immediately straightens up.

'A call for help?' Ming Guang stares at the radio frequency on the display. 'Is this a distress signal?'

Zhou Xiangzhe checks his communication device. 'No distress signal came through the equipment. Where's this broadcast coming from?'

'I don't know, but I can try to tune it in, get the voice even clearer.'

Ming Guang keeps adjusting on the spot. The static is slowly filtered out, and soon the human voice can be heard clearly in full.

'Can anyone hear this? This is Guard Squad 13th Street patrol, unit 337. We're carrying out a mission, sweeping Qianzhen Residential Area. Seven of us encountered a Grade C contaminant inside the complex. We've lost contact with the outside — requesting help, help!'

'Can anyone hear? Qianzhen Residential Area, help! Please save us!'

With a ding, the Contamination Detector installed in the car sounds an alarm.

'Warning! Environmental contamination level rising. Contamination detected nearby! On-site personnel, please proceed immediately to clean up!'

'A contaminant?' Shen Wang listens to the broadcast. 'Is this something that spreads contamination through sound, or just through the radio itself?'

Shen Wang's question goes straight to the point. If it's the latter, the contaminant isn't worth worrying about — just turn off the car radio. But if it's the former… no one wants to know how much damage a contaminant that can spread contamination through sound alone could cause.

'Got it,' Ming Guang says.

'This location is marked as an unidentified contaminant. It first appeared about three months ago. People passing through reported hearing calls for help. The Guard Squad sent people to investigate, found nothing unusual. But soon after, every single person who reported hearing the cries went missing — including the Guard Squad members who came to check.'

At that, Shen Wang asks, 'So are we going to go missing together too?'

'There should be a limit,' Zhou Xiangzhe answers. 'A low-grade contaminant's contamination talent can't affect high-grade mutants.'

The car radio keeps repeating the plea for help over and over.

It sounds like a man, maybe still young. His voice is full of grief, even wavering with tears — sheer despair from being unable to call for help, or from his cries being ignored.

'Qianzhen Residential Area, Grade C contaminant, help.'

'Can anyone hear? There are seven victims here, please save us!'

'We can't hold on much longer. Hurry, please, hurry!'

Click. An eerie sound comes from beside him.

Shen Wang turns toward the noise and sees a pale white face. It's a woman in a white dress stained with blood, pressed against the car window like a horror movie ghost. Her dark, hollow eyes stare fixedly at Shen Wang through the cold glass.

After a few seconds of eye contact, the woman flashes a smile at him. That smile… how to put it? It's pretty damn creepy.

'Grade C contaminant,' Shen Wang suddenly says.

Zhou Xiangzhe and Ming Guang, who were listening to the broadcast, turn to Shen Wang simultaneously. They see him looking out the window. Beyond the transparent glass is an empty wilderness.

'I see her.' Shen Wang places his hand on the car window. 'Looks like it can only pull in people below Grade C.'

Zhou Xiangzhe instantly understands what Shen Wang means. He immediately rises and reaches out to pull him back, but before he can even grab the corner of his clothes, a living person disappears right before his eyes.

Zhou Xiangzhe grasps at empty air.

'Shit!' Ming Guang shouts, as the Contamination Detector chimes mechanically.

'Contamination level returned to normal. Thank you for your service, staff.'

Zhou Xiangzhe withdraws his hand. He gazes at the car window, a touch of coldness in his golden eyes.

'Don't worry. Shen Wang is a Grade C mutant, practically almost Grade B. He'll be fine.'

'It's just a Grade C contaminant. Shen Wang can handle it!'

'I know.' Zhou Xiangzhe's voice betrays no emotion. He just stares thoughtfully at the empty road ahead.

'Call Bo Wenhuan.'

'Have him track this contaminant down.'

……

Shen Wang feels a sudden weightlessness. Once it passes, the scene before him has changed completely.

In front of him stands a dilapidated high-rise, so tall he can't see the top. The sky is dim, like dusk. The air is sticky and damp, carrying a faint earthy smell, as if it's been drizzling for days without a glimpse of sun, so everything around is molding and rotting.

Shen Wang first pulls out his phone and tries to send a message out. He sees all red bars — no signal. Every message he sends comes back as a line of exclamation marks.

'Well, no signal.'

Shen Wang puts his phone away and stands on tiptoe, looking at the empty building.

Uncleared weeds sprawl across the lawn at the complex entrance. They all withered in the bitter winter cold, and spring's arrival hasn't changed a thing — still bare, tangled branches and stems, steeped in the desolation of long neglect.

This place is so empty. Emptier than you'd expect for a place with a contaminant.

And Shen Wang is curious where exactly he is. Contamination spread solely through a car radio doesn't quite fit a contaminant's drive to expand.

'Forget it.' Shen Wang shrugs, a light smile tugging at his lips. His dark eyes reflect the entrance door overgrown with weeds.

'Let's head in and take a look.'

Before Shen Wang can even reach the entrance door, there's a wet thud — something hits the ground with a sticky sound. It's a woman in a white dress.

Shen Wang walks over. She looks exactly like the woman he saw from the car, but this time her face isn't pale — it's barely a face at all. The fall from the height has smashed her to pieces, an ugly sight. Blood seeps out from under her, dyeing the white dress red.

At the same time, the Contamination Detector on him performs its duty and shrieks a sharp alarm.

'Warning! Contamination level exceeding 80%!'

'Warning! Contaminant detected nearby!'

'Warning! Please evacuate nearby residents immediately!'

Shen Wang clicks his tongue. He's always hated sharp noises. This detector has successfully gotten on his nerves.

He switches the detector off directly, then takes two steps back to avoid the woman's pooling blood. He isn't scared — he just hates getting dirty.

Just as he moves about a meter away, the woman sprawled on the ground suddenly lifts her head. Her entire face has been smashed to a pulp from the fall, flesh and stark white bone fragments sticking together. But from those shattered wounds, tiny flesh buds sprout at a visible speed, threading across her face and stitching it back together bit by bit.

'Why are you fine?' The woman fixes Shen Wang with her shattered eyes.

'Why are you the only one fine?'

Shen Wang crouches down to look at her, his dark eyes reflecting her broken face.

'That I'm fine is pretty normal, isn't it? My psyche's stable, and I'm stronger than you. Of course you can't contaminate me.'

'So, was it you who pulled me in here?'

The figure Shen Wang saw in the car window was this woman, but the voice on the car radio had been a man's.

In the plant kingdom, hermaphroditism is normal — but this contaminant doesn't look like a hermaphrodite at all.

Meanwhile, the woman who had fallen from the high-rise seemed to have lost any desire to communicate with Shen Wang. She didn't even glance at him, instead climbing like a gecko up The High Wall of the complex. The sticky granulation tissue clung to the wall, making squelching sounds.

Shen Wang steps back and watches her climb. He's curious what'll happen next.

She climbs fast. In moments she's on the rooftop, her white dress fluttering on the ledge. Like someone who's lost all meaning in life, she steps forward, and her body falls from the building. Blood reddens the dress — even her landing posture is exactly the same as before.

Then she does it a third time, a fourth…

Contaminants vary, and plenty of repetitive ones exist. He's seen one that thought it was a fish, so it swam around in the river. A seven-second memory let it just frolic in the water — but everyone who saw it swim became contaminated, gradually believing they too were fish.

It's a kind of stereotyped mental contamination. The same gesture contaminates and assimilates others, so those who see a suicide will also commit suicide; those who see a swimming fish-man will think they're fish-men too.

But contaminants like that usually only reach Grade D at most.

'Don't get close to her. You'll be contaminated.' A voice comes from behind Shen Wang, and it sounds a little familiar.

Shen Wang turns and sees a man.

He wore the familiar Guard Squad uniform, though it was somewhat faded, the edges frayed and damaged, full of the marks of the Passing Years Squad.

'Who are you?' Shen Wang asks.

'Let's leave this place first. There's a safe spot over there,' the man says.

Finally recognizing his voice, Shen Wang raises an eyebrow slightly, a subtle look in his eyes.

Because this man's voice is exactly the same as the call for help on the car radio.